


The Unusual

by RiverKaze



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Blood and Injury, Bullying, Demon Lance (Voltron), Demon Summoning, Demons, Dreams and Nightmares, Eventual Fluff, Family Feels, Gay Keith (Voltron), High School, Homophobic Language, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, Minor Injuries, Multi, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Keith (Voltron), Panic, Paranoia, Protective Lance (Voltron), Sassy Pidge | Katie Holt, Slow Burn, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Strangers to Lovers, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 05:54:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15285111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiverKaze/pseuds/RiverKaze
Summary: Something is drawing Keith in, niggling in the back of his mind like he's forgetting something. He doesn't think much of it until he's walking home too late at night and his paranoid brain starts making creatures in the shadows. The question is, though, are they a figment of his overactive imagination or are they really there, watching him?





	1. The Start

**Author's Note:**

> This should be a relatively short fic (don't quote me on that though) and chapters will be short.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

Keith sat down at his computer desk in the study room, watching the teacher out the corner of his eye as he set up for a useless hour of school work. The teacher, Mr. Hammond, went straight to their desk on the far side of the room and didn’t even bother to look up at the students still making their way into the room and finding their desks. Mr. Hammond was an old chemistry teacher that always seemed to do more sleeping during class then actual teaching. It was probably why he only taught two out of five classes for chemistry and was mainly the study room supervisor. It was always a bludge lesson and Keith kind of hated it, having a lesson for just study that no one even used was stupid. Why the school didn’t just let them all leave an hour earlier made no sense to Keith. It was four hours of his life that he wasted every week at a place meant for learning, and learning definitely didn’t occur in those hours.

As Keith looked around himself he could see that the screens of the students near him were mostly some kind of social media website, which didn’t surprise him at all. On occasion he would see screens with some sort of games on them and as he looked behind him he saw one screens which was just a wall of text, Keith didn’t even bother to look closer. He looked back to his own blank computer and the new webpage he had up, ready to look up some obscure thing. He thought for a moment and stared blankly at the screen as it turned over to the screen saver, a few boring whirls before it when completely blank. The dark screen seemed to ignite something in him, a nagging at the back of his mind that he was forgetting something but he couldn’t figure out what it could be. Eventually, he thought of the documentaries he and Pidge had been watching two nights ago, a lot of, supposedly real, paranormal and supernatural stuff. He’d always been into the weird things that go bump in the night and as he shook his mouse to wake up his computer he decided that’s what he’d be doing in study today. Dobhar-chu’s, Dryad’s, and Demon’s, just to name a few.

He found himself fully absorbed in it all and by the end of class he was more intrigued and more confused than before. He hadn’t stayed on any one topic for too long, going from more cryptid like creatures first to mythology then to angels and demons. He had found himself absorbed in unearthing as much about angels and demons as he could. He couldn’t seem to explain why but he was extremely captivated by the topic. As Keith packed his belongings up and headed out of the Library he thought about Pidge, he knew she would be happy to discuss this kind of stuff with him. Now if he could only remember what class she was in at the moment so they could organise something for after school. 

Keith didn’t manage to find Pidge’s next class, which meant that he would have to wait until the end of the school day to talk to her. There was only one lesson before the end of school anyway so Keith waited. He found himself doodling in his sketch book, they were just small weird symbols that by the end of class were completely covering his page. Some were even over lapping each other and as he looked at it longer it just looked like someone had had an awesome time of scribbling all over his book. Keith torn out the page as he packed up his belonging and threw the page in the bin as he made his way out of the class room to his locker.

It was much easier to find Pidge at her locker after class. Easier still, as their lockers were next to each other. When he got closer to though he could see that Pidge was talking to someone, someone Keith didn’t know. He didn’t like to admit it, though it was painfully obvious, but he was not good at social interactions. The only real reason he and Pidge became friend were because of Matt and Shiro, and the fact that Pidge didn’t really take his shit. So, he walked up to the pair with caution, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. 

As Keith got closer he could hear them talking, not that he had any chance of following the conversation. He decided to observe instead, taking in the guy’s massive size. Keith noticed that the guy was taller than Shiro and had a heavier build to him, he had long dark brown hair and skin, a wide nose, and, from what Keith could tell, the guy had brown eyes as well. It was only when those brown eyes turned to him that Keith jumped at being noticed.

“Hi, I’m Hunk,” the guy said with a large smile on his face.

“Keith,” he replied quickly as he turned away from Hunk and busied himself with his locker. He could feel his anxiety kicking in and he wanted to smack his head into his locker, if only it wouldn’t make him look weird. He heard Pidge’s snicker and felt the top of his ears turn red as he shot her a quick glare. 

“Don’t worry about him,” Pidge said as she leaned over and slapped Keith on the back in mock assurance. “Hunk’s joining our movie nights by the way.”

Keith turned to her and just knew his face probably showed his horror at the idea of someone else joining them. It wasn’t that he didn’t want more friends, or that he was scare that they’d make fun of his overenthusiasm for anything supernatural, it was the not knowing someone that scared him most. He didn’t know if he could joke like he did with Pidge, he didn’t know if Hunk would understand his need for isolation at times, he didn’t know what would happen if he said the wrong thing. He didn’t know and that terrified him. 

Pidge though, Pidge was a force to be reckoned with. So, he knew that he could do nothing to stop her and that was probably why they worked so well together. They didn’t take each other’s bull crap but they also understood each other really well. 

Keith let out a sigh as he turned back to his locker, shoving his books and sheet into their proper places. “Okay,” he mumbled as he grabbed his bag and swinging it on his shoulder, “I found some cool stuff on the internet, in study, that I wanted you to look through, if you’re free tonight? If not, I can just show you tomorrow.” Keith said with a shrug, he was guessing, and hoping, that Hunk was into the supernatural stuff like they were so the question was kind of open to the both of them. 

Pidge seemed to understand, she always did get Keith’s way of speaking, “Yeah, I’m free, Matt’s picking me up so we can go to mine. What about you, Hunk?”

“I – um – well … am I invited?” He asked and looked at Keith with eyes that seemed to be pleading, which Keith found weird. Keith just shrugged and looked to Pidge, she rolled her eyes at the boys, shaking her head after.

“Yeah, you’re invited, Keith’s just speaks weirdly sometimes,” Pidge said with a huff and another eye roll. “You’ll get used to it eventually.” She swung her bag onto her back and turned down the slightly less crowded halls waving at the boys to follow her down the hall, “come on, slow pokes.” 

Hunk turned questioning eyes back at Keith but Keith waved it off as he set out after Pidge.


	2. The Shadows

When it was finally time to leave the Holt’s house, Keith was exhausted but content. He had gotten on greatly with Hunk, which was sort of surprising for him, and they'd found they had a similar sense of humour. He could see though, that Hunk had a lot more in common with Pidge, than Hunk had with him. They had gotten into a discussion of their Chemistry homework as soon as they’d entered Matt’s car. As Keith went to leave he realised he hadn’t gotten to talk to Pidge about his earlier research but they had all this weeks homework completed which meant he didn’t have to worry about any more pressing homework assignments until next week. 

The sun was almost completely down by the time Keith left the Holt’s. He had stayed for dinner, which he didn't have much memory of eating as all three of them had been absently eaten it while completing their homework. The streets were quite dark when he looked down the road, the streetlights were closely becoming the only source of light as the sun continued to set. Keith was thankful it wasn’t yet cold enough to need his jacket as he had forgotten this morning. 

It was quite unlike him to forget something. He replayed the day in his head as he made his way home, he started with this morning. The alarm he usually had on his phone hadn’t gone off, then he’d burnt his toast and managed to drop it, he’d forgotten his jacket, almost forgot his phone and keys, and very nearly missed his bus for school. Then at school he had tried four times to get into his locker only for Pidge to come and tell him he had the wrong one. Most of his classes ended with his not paying any mind to what the teachers had been trying to say. He felt like today was just one of those days where focus was not something he had, let alone patience. At least the school hadn’t needed to call Shiro for anything today.

And it was only after school that he finally had some patience back, the weird nagging in the back of his mind seemed to relent as he had been finishing the last class of the day. _Because, of course, that’s when I’d be able to focus,_ he thought as he walked further from the Holt’s house, _at least I don’t have to worry about those stupid assignments_.

Keith sighed as he came to a stop at a set of lights, pressing the walk button and waiting for it to turn green. The street was unusually busy for this time of night, it seemed like everyone had somewhere to be tonight so he had no choice but to wait. Keith looked down the road and his heart jumped into his throat. It looked like there was a shadow moving towards him but he was 95% sure it was just his paranoid brain playing tricks on him. He turned to face the road so that he was no longer looking in the shadows direction and he tried to slow his breathing. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest, bringing the panic with it, but he wouldn’t give his paranoid brain the satisfaction. 

The lights eventually changed and let him across the road. His curiosity got the best of him though and he turned to look back at the shadow when he had made it half way across the street. He tripped as he stared back as two sets of luminous eyes appeared from the shadows. There was one set of blazing yellow eyes and a bit further back was a set of shimmering blue eyes. Keith stood still looking at the eyes as he slowly walked backwards, trying to keep his gaze on the shadows. He noted that the blue eyes didn’t even seem to notice him, but the yellow eyes appeared to be smiling manically at him even though he couldn’t see the things mouth. It left him with a foreboding feeling, something bad was going to happen and Keith had no idea what it could be.

Keith stumbled up the other side of the road having walked the last half of it backwards. He only just managed to catch himself before he completely fell over however this meant that he no longer had the shadows in his sights. He quickly scanned the other side of the road for any sign of the shadow figures. They were no longer there. Keith turned and ran as fast as he could all the way back home, he wasn’t about to stick around to see if, or when, the shadows returned.

Shiro and Keith lived in a small house that sat close to a park. Usually Keith loved that fact, although with what he had just seen he felt a bit terrified. Yeah, it probably didn’t make sense to many but Keith loved unnatural thing; cryptids, aliens, supernatural and mythological creatures, and anything else you could think of. The only down side was that it caused Keith mind to be overly imaginative when it came to many things, it made him paranoid, sometimes erratic, panicky, and anxious. Usually that’s when his mind gets the better of him and he start to imagine seeing things, or having nightmares. Or so he had thought but the shadows had seemed a lot more real than anything he had encountered before. 

So, he slowed as his house came into view, the forest that was only two houses down from his own looked as if it was too dark for this time of night and that sent a shiver all the way down his back. _You’re only being paranoid, Keith,_ he thought to himself and took a deep breath, _don’t let the paranoia win._

The thought had just crossed his mind as the street light above his head began to flicker. His heart was back in his throat, slowly chocking him on his building panic, nevertheless he ran the last stretch to his house, choking on his breath as he did so. The lights, thankfully, were on inside and he could see Shiro’s car in the driveway as he raced to make it in the front door. He was silently thankful that Shiro had a bad habit of not locking the door when he was home alone, as Keith barrelled his way through and slammed the door shut behind him.

Keith leaned his head on the now closed door as he sluggishly locked it and took a much-needed breath. His nerves were shot but, finally, the panic and anxiety from his paranoia filled adventure was waning. His breathing was becoming more even with each passing second only to be interrupted as a hand came down on his shoulder. He jumped and spun around so quickly he tripped on his own feet and fell backwards into the door, sliding down as he took in the figure before him. Shiro stood there, arm still slightly extended, with a fond but exasperated expression on his face as he looked down at Keith, who was a jumble of limbs on the floor.

“Keith?” Shiro questioned. He squatted to look at Keith closer and raised an eyebrow when Keith stayed lying in a heap on the floor. “You okay there, Keith?”

Keith could only manage to shake his head slightly as his chest heaved with the strain of trying to catch his breath again. He could feel the exhaustion setting in, panic always did that to him. He tried to push up from the floor but he couldn’t quite get his limbs to respond properly, he felt sluggish and they felt like lead weights holding him down. Shiro seemed to notice his struggles and reached out a hand to pull Keith up. As Shiro helped him up he felt a sudden dizzy spell which caused him to sway slightly next to Shiro, who had yet to let go of him. 

“Keith, what’s wrong?” Shiro said as he guided Keith to the loungeroom and onto their couch. The concern in Shiro’s voice made Keith wince at himself and he sighed as he sat down and looked up at Shiro.

“It’s just my paranoia,” Keith said dismissively. He couldn’t tell Shiro about the shadows, how would you even start to tell someone about that experience. “I left Pidge’s too late and was starting to see things. You know how I get.”

Shiro sighed slightly, his face had a growing look of concern as he stood before Keith, arms crossed over his chest. “You really should stop watching all those weird show.”

“You’re probably right,” Keith said with a shrug. “But I like them, they’re really interesting shows.”

Shiro gave Keith a questioning look, he didn’t really understand how they could be interesting but Keith seemed to like them and that was enough for Shiro. Though, it was bothersome when Keith had nightmares about the creatures he’d watch in his shows, or when he’d see things in the shadows that he knew weren’t there, or when he’d talk on and on about some sort of creature to Shiro that Shiro just couldn’t wrap his mind around.

“Sleeping on the couch then, are we?” Keith gave a sheepish grin and nodded. Shiro let out another sigh before he headed back to the kitchen to make them both hot chocolates. “We’re watching ‘27 Dresses’ and you can’t complain.” Shiro shouted from the kitchen.

Groaning, Keith sunk further into the couch, he did not want to watch a romantic comedy but he would let it go this time. Shiro might be a tall, muscular, and intimidating man but he was really just a giant sap personality wise. Besides, it was probably best not to watch stuff that would only help to fuel Keith’s nightmares.

Keith fiddled with the remote, bringing Netflix up on the TV and setting the movie to load while he waited for Shiro to return. Shiro brought two mugs in, setting them on the coffee table. He left and returned with their blankets and pillow, Keith hadn’t even thought of that, and handed Keith his, chucking his own on the recliner next to the couch. He stood with his hands on his hips and seemed to be thinking about something.

“What am I forgetting?” Shiro said aloud, tapping a finger on his hipbone.

“I locked the front door,” Keith said reaching for his chocolate to take a drink, “if that’s what you think it could be.”

Shiro thought for a second, nodding and moving to his recliner to set himself up, “it was, I always forget the front door.”

With the both of them set, all wrapped up in their blankets with their hot chocolates, Keith started the movie. He felt comfortable and cosy, the blankets made him nice and warm, and his hot chocolate didn’t last long. The movie had barely started by the time Keith was already drifting off, and soon enough he was in a deep sleep.


	3. The Spectre

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mention of blood in this chapter

Keith was half asleep still as he turned onto his side. he woke completely when he felt himself connect with the floor. In his half-asleep state, he had forgotten he’d been sleeping on the couch instead of his, much larger, bed. 

He pulled himself off the ground and blindly reached for his phone on the coffee table as he sat back on the couch. The light from it blinded him as he strained to look at the time, 1:39 am it read. Much too early to be awake yet. Keith tossed his phone thoughtlessly back onto the coffee table, hearing a dull thud, and slumped back in his chair. He closed his eyes for the moment, thinking of what to do. He wasn’t entirely sure if he’d be able to get back to sleep anytime soon, he felt entirely too awake to even think of sleep.

He opened his eyes slowly so they could adjust and saw the TV still on, the only light source in the dark room. What confused him was that the mugs were gone from the coffee table. Instead, there were pages, with some kind of weird drawings on, all over the table and Keith was fairly certain they didn’t belong to either him or Shiro. He thought to ask Shiro but it didn’t seem like he would have woken Shiro with his fall so he should have still been asleep on the recliner. However, as Keith looked over at his brother, he wasn’t asleep, he wasn’t even there. In Shiro’s place instead, was the shadow figure with the piercing blue eyes. 

The figure was definitely more humanoid now, its limbs were gangly and its face was long, but that was about as much as Keith could work out in the darkness. Other than the luminous blue eyes, it was very much still a shadowy figure.

Keith couldn’t take his eyes off the shadow, he wasn’t sure if it was out of fear or something else. He watched as the figure tilted its head and continued to look at Keith for what felt like hours. When it suddenly looked over Keith shoulder and back at Keith he wasn’t entirely sure if it actually had looked or not. He wanted to look over at whatever the shadow had, though he couldn’t seem to take his gaze off the shadows face.

The figure leaned forward then, coming up close to Keith. It stopped briefly and appeared to be examining Keith’s face. Keith could just make out more of the shadows features from such a close distance, the slight curve of its nose, the smoky structure on its head that Keith guessed must be its hair, until the shadow decided to continue to lean forward, stopping right by Keith's ear.

“Don’t trust him,” The shadow whispered into his ear, sending a shiver down his back. The figure leaned back then and grabbed the stack of papers that Keith seemed to be holding, only he didn’t know when he’d even picked the papers up that had been on the coffee table. “Don’t summon us, Keith. Either of us.”

With that said the shadow dissipated, taking the papers with it. Keith was left a little stunned, he looked down at his hands that now had nothing in them again, when had he even picked up the papers. He looked over to the coffee table and it was blank, nothing was on it not even his phone. Keith couldn’t make any sense of what had just happened and was lost in thought until he felt a clawed hand grab his shoulder. 

Keith turned around slowly, silently hoping that it was possibly the blue eyed shadow and another unknown monster that was bound to rip him to shreds. What he saw instead was the shadowed figure he’d seen earlier tonight. This one was taller, the eyes were the unnerving luminous yellow he remembered, and this time it had a wide jagged grin, teeth white and pointed. The figure leaned in close to Keith and without a second thought Keith threw himself as far out of the figure reach as he could. 

He wrestled with the blanket that was tangled on his legs and pushed himself over the back of the couch to get away from the shadow. It reached for Keith again and managed to grab him by his forearm, its sharp shadowy claws dug in and Keith yanked his arm towards himself without thinking, effectively cutting himself on the shadows claws. 

Shouting in pain he held his arm tightly to stop himself bleeding too much. He could feel the blood seeping through his fingers but he refused to look at the damage. He kept his eyes on the yellow eyed shadow as it stalked towards him and he staggered backward until he hit the wall of the loungeroom. The figure was closing in on him, smile growing wider and sharper with each step it took.

It was only about 5 steps from him when his head started to become fuzzy. _Probably from blood loss_ , he thought as his head lolled back against the wall. He wasn’t too sure what was going to happen to him when the figure finally reached him but he kind of hoped, whatever did happen, it would be over quick. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable, when he felt a presence in front of him. He had planned on keeping his eyes shut, not wanting to look the thing in the eye, but curiosity always got the better of him.

In front of him stood another shadow. The blue eyed one if he had to guess but he couldn’t really tell as it were standing with their back to Keith.

“MOVE!” a voice rang out. Keith shivered and the shadow before him move back further. Keith was pretty much stuck between the shadow and the wall now but he had a strange sensation of being safe.

“No.” another voice said defiantly, Keith knew then that it was the blue eyed shadow in front of him, the voice was the same as before. “ _You need to leave!_ ”

Blue eyes turned to face Keith then. It quickly drew its hands up onto either side of Keith face and stared straight into his eyes. He felt a weird dizziness come over him, not quite the same as the fuzziness from his blood loss, and opened his mouth to ask. He didn’t get the chance as he slowly fell to the floor, eyes heavy and head dizzy. The last thing he saw was a clawed hand coming down on the back of the blue eyed shadow and its shout of pain as it fell onto the floor with him.


	4. The Stirred

Keith bolted upright and screamed. He grabbed onto his arm which was flaring with pain but only had nasty jagged red lines down it. he pulled his arm closer to himself and hunched over it as he tried to get his breathing back. As his breathing calmed down he tried to recall what exactly happened in his dream. All that came to him though was shadows darkness and pain, an even that was slowly dissipating. Along with the dizziness of his head and the ringing in his ears apparently.

As his hearing came back he could just start to hear Shiro’s panicked shouts. Keith turned his head to the side and saw his brothers terrified expression, his mouth was moving but it was still muffled by the ringing. He gave Shiro a small smile as he looked around him and noticed was that the loungeroom was exactly like it had been when they had gone to bed. Why that was significant to him he couldn’t understand. 

“I’m okay,” Keith tried to say but choked, he coughed a few times to clear his throat before he added, “ears were ringing.”

Shiro looked at him in bewilderment, “Keith, that’s not normal.” Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder which drew Keith attention to it. Something in his stomach tightened in fear for a second before he looked Shiro in the eye. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Keith just shrugged and got up to make his way to the kitchen, his throat felt dry and sore, and his head was still a little dizzy. _Though, that might be from screaming myself hoarse and not getting enough oxygen_ , he thought as he gulped down water and suddenly felling even more exhausted then he had before he’d gone to bed. Nightmare always did that to him though and he was just glad he didn’t remember any of this one. The only things that were left were the slight pain from the red marks that he’d probably done to himself in his sleep, which wasn’t the first time he had.

Shiro didn’t question Keith when he got back from the kitchen, he knew Keith was sometimes sensitive about his nightmares and it was best not to poke at them. However, Shiro did watch Keith closely as he got back onto the couch, pulling the blankets tight around himself. It was only moments later that Shiro could hear Keith’s breaths even out and he was back to sleep.

Shiro sighed as he looked over his brother. It was hard sometimes for Shiro, being Keith’s guardian, there was only 8 years difference between them and Shiro hadn’t known much about looking after someone else when his parents had died. These last 5 years had definitely been an experience for them both but he wouldn’t give up on Keith. There had been many people that like to point out things that he already knew, like; they weren’t real brothers, or he was only 20, or that Keith was a horrible and difficult preteen. But Shiro couldn’t and wouldn’t listen to those people. He and Keith were family and they would stick together, though thick and thin.

That meant Shiro was going to do as much as possible to never see the expression Keith had had on his face when he woke up. It was an expression that Shiro had seen before, a look that had plagued them both for that first year after his parents had died. It was a look he had never wanted to see again, on either of them.


	5. The Summon

Just over a week had passed since Keith’s weird nightmares begun. He could never really remember much of them, but he always woke to new marks on his body after every nightmare. The scratches from his first nightmare had slowly disappeared over the course of a week. Scratches would appear on his arms, his legs, his chest, and one even showed up on his face. However, with each day that passed, and each new mark, he seemed to be remembering more and more. Little bits and pieces every time he woke. The only thing he was really remembering with any kind of clarity, though, were some strange symbols and a voice. The voice always felt familiar, but Keith could never make out the words it spoke.

Keith lay in his bed trying to remember his latest dream, he fiddled with a pen as he looked at his bedside table and the book that sat on it. The book, that he had started to keep by his bed only when the nightmares began, was full of the symbols he could remember from his dreams, but today no more weird symbols came to him. Instead, he pulled the book over to himself and looked at what he already had. It was a weird collection, to him it felt like there was two pieces of art overlapping each other and it all just seemed wrong.

That’s when the thought struck him. He jumped out of bed and went to go get some spare paper from their printer, the book he had was too small for what he wanted. He grabbed some sheets of paper and went over to the desk he mainly used for homework. He drew out the weird symbol that was in his book, making it larger in the process so he could get a better look at it. Once he had it on one piece of paper he could see that it was definitely two overlapping each other, so he began splitting the original onto two separate pages.

When he had finished separating the weird original mass up of symbols into two he realised what they actually were, or well, what they looked suspiciously like anyway. Keith grabbed the closest summoning circle to have a closer look at it. This one had a softer look to it, all spirals, and curves, and soft edges, while the one still on the desk looked more jagged and rigid, with a lot of sharp, pointed lines. He jumped as he heard his mobile ring. He looked at the clock on his desk, 12:31pm, he hadn’t realised how long it had taken him to complete his little project until the trilling sound of his mobile had broken his concentration. 

His rushed to put the paper down so that he could go and find his phone, _god where did I put it now_ , but paused in his rush as the fresh, sharp paper cut into his finger. He grimaced and absently flicked the blood from his finger before going to the kitchen for a bandaid. 

_Whoever is calling could wait for a minute_ , he thought as he pulled open the medical box out and dug around for a bandaid, while he run water over his finger in the sink to get rid of the excess blood. As Keith finished applying his bandaid and putting the medical box back he heard a loud crash come from the lounge room. He raced back to inspect the noise only to freeze in the doorway. 

There stood a stranger, a weird looking stranger, and if Keith’s mind was functioning properly he would have instantly realised what they were. The stranger, some sort of humanoid creature, had what looked like horns on its head and a weird looking tail, it’s hair was brown, skin tan, with clothes that were impossibly skin tight. And it just stood there surveying the room, until it eventually spotted Keith and angrily stalked over to him. Keith could only look on, captivated by the luminous blue eyes that seemed so familiar to him but not at the same time.

“You IDIOT!” The stranger shouted as he grabbed the front of Keith’s shirt and yanked him forward. “What did I say? I said NOT to summon us! Do you even know what we are?!”

Keith wasn’t able to find his words, too caught up in the fact that the stranger, a man, was so very close to him. The man’s face was barely 5 cm from Keith's own and Keith was far too captivated by his beauty to be able to form a coherent sentence. The man seemed to understand and let out a sigh of frustration that skimmed across Keith's check. He looked back to where Keith’s desk was. He scanned the room and again, seemingly looking for something and let out another sigh as he turned back to Keith.

“Congrats,” The man said leaning in closer to Keith, “you’ve just summoned yourself two demons.”

The word demon finally broke Keith from his mystified state, and he stepped back, “What?”

“Hi there, Keith,” the man said as he walked Keith backward until his back hit the kitchen counter. The demon laughed lightly as he leaned as close as possible to Keith, hands bracketing Keith in. “My name’s Lance. It’s nice to finally meet you, _in the flesh_.”


	6. The Settled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a minor panic attack in this chapter but Lance pulls him out of it

Keith had tried for the last hour to keep an eye on Lance, but he was a slippery bugger and eventually Keith gave up. Sometime in that hour Lance had opted to look more human like, no longer sporting his horns and tail, his eyes were less luminous and more natural now as well. He hadn’t accepted the clothes Keith had offered though and Keith had the suspicion that Lance only denied the clothes to toy with Keith. 

The sound of his phone going off again had him gritting his teeth. Keith was frustrated and flustered in more ways than one and Lance was not helping him at all. He let out an aggravated sigh as he moved to search for his phone, he’d forgotten the missed call from an hour ago because of his new distraction and he could hear his damned phone, but he couldn’t, for the life of him, find it.

“You might want to get that,” Lance shouted from somewhere in the house as the phone continued to ring. 

The sound of faint footsteps had Keith looking up from the pile of stuff on the coffee table he was currently looking through. Lance was coming out of Keith’s room wearing his old red leather jacket, which had been stored in a box at the back of his wardrobe, that combined with his already skin tight black clothes did things to Keith. Keith couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his face though, as Lance put on a show of twirling and strutting around like an idiot. He watched as Lance walked over and sat down on the floor beside him, shoving his hands in the jackets pockets.

Keith shook his head and went back to his search, he couldn’t quite remember where he’d had his phone last, but he knew he had it this morning. If it had been Shiro trying to call, then Keith knew he was going to be getting a lecture. Keith began to panic, his thoughts on Shiro, on their parents, on the unanswered phone calls, on the silence. He could feel his breath coming in quick and shortening, unable to get enough air in. 

“Shit!” Keith growled as he tossed the miscellaneous items back on the coffee table. 

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and he turned quickly to see Lance looking at him with concern. He felt a sudden wave of calm wash over him and he wasn’t sure if it was just Lance’s magic or his presence that had caused it, but he knew it was Lance. With the calm feeling washing over him he slumped forward and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with much needed oxygen. 

“I can help,” Lance said with a smile, he brought his hands up between them and wiggled his fingers, “with my magic.”

Keith watched as Lance kept one of his hands on Keith shoulder and put the other just above the floor. He looked Keith in the eyes then back down to the hand that rested just above the floor. Keith watched as Lance’s eyes began to illuminate and shimmer like glitter reflecting the sun. Then, almost as soon as it began, it stopped.

“Tada,” Lance sang as he swept his hand facing the ground away and there sat his phone, intact and right there. Keith only got to appreciate what Lance had done for a second before it suddenly lit up with Shiro’s name. Keith dived for the phone and answered as quickly as he possibly could with fumbling fingers. 

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice came though the speakers with a pleased sounding sighed.

“Yeah Shiro, sorry about that.” Keith replied, relief flooding over him. He slumped into Lance’s side without thinking, using Lance to prop himself upright.

“I was just calling to check up, make sure you’re not having a wild party without me,” Shiro laughed lightening the mood.

“In the middle of the day Shiro, come on!” Keith replied, laughing along with him.

They continued to speak on the phone for another 10 minutes, which was when Shiro really had to get back to work. Keith felt lighter after talking with Shiro, the panic from earlier had melted away and just left him feeling tired. He noticed it then, the feeling of fingers running through his hair and scraping lightly across his scalp. He turned his head to look at Lance, who’s attention was on something else. Keith was fairly sure Lance didn’t even know he was playing with Keith’s hair.

Keith took the opportunity to get another closer look at Lance’s features. With his horns and tail gone, his eyes looking natural but still bright with life, the noticeable upturn of his nose. Lance was still wearing those sinfully tight clothes, that Keith couldn’t help checking out often, but now with Keith’s jacket on and with how small the thing was, the whole outfit left little to the imagination, nonetheless Keith wasn’t complaining.

It was just Keith’s luck though that when he was having naughty thought of the demon he was currently leaning on and looking at, that said demon would give him a knowing look. Keith turned his head away and blushed furiously, this was why he’d never had a boyfriend before. He knew everyone called him the shy, freak, that likes monster. And now he’d summoned one.

Keith thought back to an earlier, when he’d first summoned Lance by accident. What had Lance said back then? That he’s summoned two demons? But where was the other then?

“Wait,” Keith said as he pulled away from Lance to face him fully, “You said I summoned two demons but you’re the only one here.”

Lance sighed and stood up, making a show of it so that he could see that vivid red blush on Keith’s cheeks again. it worked. Lance smirked to himself as he made his way to the desk that had his summoning circle on it. It still lay there, mostly on top of the other but not quite enough. He pulled them both up and showed Keith what he meant.

“This here,” he pointed to his own circle, the curly one that now had quite a few drops of blood on it, “This is my summoning circle. And this one,” he pointed to the one with sharp, jagged lines and had what looked like a semi-circle of blood on it, “this is the other demon’s circle.”

Lance place them down on the coffee table and frowned at them before he looked back up at Keith with a blank expression. “Just that half drop of blood could summon them but not completely. They’re likely hold up somewhere safe, thinking of a plan to get to you.”

“Why would they be after me?” Keith asked as he looked down at the sheets of paper.

“I don’t know,” Lance said. He went and slumped down into the couch, his legs brushing against Keith's arm, letting out a long sigh before continuing to speak, “You only partly summoned me about a week ago, and I’ve only been able to fight him off not actually speak to them.”

“Wait, partly summoned?” Keith asked as he turned to lean his arms on Lance’s thigh, subconsciously.

“You probably drew some of my symbols,” Lance said as he looked over at Keith. “I wouldn’t have been able to hold back the other demon from getting you, that night you walked home by yourself.”

“That was you!”

Lance leaned over Keith, making Keith look up. Their faces were only centimetres apart and Keith’s breath caught in his throat. Lance brought his hands up onto either side of Keith's face, effectively holding it still as his eyes drifted over Keith’s features landing on his lips for a moment before looking Keith straight in the eyes. 

Once Lance had Keith's eyes on his own, he flashed them, revealing their usual glittering and shimmering blue state, “I will always be there to protect you.” Lance declared, and for him it felt oddly right to say.

Keith let out a shaky breath at that statement, but for some reason he believed Lance would keep his word. He smiled back at Lance grabbing his face and pressing their forehead’s together, a smile spreading across his lips. “Thanks.”


	7. The Statement

Keith had a bit of a dilemma. A conundrum. A predicament. A problem. He had questions running through his head with no answers. Questions like; How was he going to tell his brother/guardian he had a stranger in their house? And then explain to said brother why said stranger was; a) in his room? b) on his bed? and c) wearing something so very, _very_ tight… in said house … in said room… and on said bed…?

Well, that’s what Keith’s current dilemma was. What he was going to explain to Shiro, when he got home.

Keith and Lance had been in Keith’s room, he trying to ignore that Lance had claimed his bed and was sprawled across it, indecently. He was working on cleaning up the mess the demon had left his wardrobe in. The old toys and clothing that had been in boxes in the back of his wardrobe now lay strewn across the floor and at the moment he was trying to reorganise it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith could see Lance moving on his bed. He painstakingly turned back to avoiding Lance by occupying himself with the boxes. That was until he felt fingers poking into the side of his face, relentlessly. He turned his glare on Lance, but the sight of him caused his face to flush and his breath catch in his throat. Lance was gazing at him upside down with a devious grin on his face, his eyes were bright with mischief.

Lance reached out a hand and cupped the back of Keith's neck, drawing him in closer. Keith watched with bewilderment as Lance’s smile softened, as did his eyes, before they drew closer together and Keith could only see the softened smile on Lance’s lips. Keith could feel the brush of Lance’s breath on his own mouth, he watched closely as Lance’s tongue quickly swiped across his bottom lip. Keith couldn’t help how he unconsciously copied the movement.

The noise from the front door opening startled Keith into falling backwards away from Lance and scurrying to his feet. He quickly looked over at Lance, noticing his pout as he also moved to get up. Keith tore his eyes from Lance and moved into action, racing for his door just as Shiro stood in the way, causing Keith to run straight into him.

“Woah there,” Shiro said with a laugh, only just preventing them both from crashing to the ground, “why are you in such –ah…?”

Shiro paused as he took in the sight before him. Keith was shifting from foot to foot and there was a stranger on Keith's bed, in less than appropriate clothing. Shiro could only look on in confusion, as he watched the smirk on the stranger’s face widen and Keith's face flare with an intense red blush.

Keith could only shuffle nervously as he watched Shiro’s expression turn from confused to disbelieving to suspicious. His eyebrow furrowing further with each expression that crossed his face. It was also no help that the stranger/man in tight clothing/demon, Lance, had moved off the bed to drape himself over Keith like they had known each other for more than a day. Like they were at that point in a relationship where they didn’t care about who saw them. Keith really didn’t know what to do.

He had frozen completely when he felt Lance’s arms wrap around his waist and rested his head on Keith’s shoulder. Keith’s hands moved to grab at Lance's arms, he was going to remove them from his waist but paused as he felt Lance kiss the side of his neck. He stiffened again, not daring to move at all, he felt Lance linger there for a moment before he finally move back to resting his chin on Keith's shoulder.

“Hey, brother Shiro,” Lance said, his voice ringing sweetly right in Keith’s ear. Keith wasn’t even aware of the look Shiro was giving him, as he was too focused on his hands encircling Lance’s arms to notice. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Ah,” Shiro started, “Yeah, nice to meet you too.”

Keith could feel Lance turn to him, his breath ghosting over Keith’s ear, “Introduce me?” Lance whispered, his lips grazing near Keith’s ear. Keith looked up at that, seeing the look on Shiro’s face. He felt like shrinking back into himself, hiding away from it all but with Lance plastered to his back and Shiro standing in front of him he had no escape. 

“Um, ah, this – this is – is…” Keith stuttered to a stop. He was unsure how to continue, should he just tell the truth, should he lie, should he just not say anything? Keith thought of what option to choose and before long he knew what one to choose, he only hoped Shiro would believe him.

“This is Lance,” he said in a rush, “He’s a demon, that I accidentally summoned today.”

“What?!” Shiro grumbled, stepping forward and reaching a hand toward Keith, as if to pull him from Lance. Lance, on the other hand, tightened his grip on Keith, moving to pull him back further into the room. “What, what do you mean?” Shiro asked with a sigh, drawing back his outstretched arm to rub the bridge of his nose instead, “ _You_ summoned a demon?”

“Yes,” Keith stated as Lance hissed his name into his ear. He ignored Lance in favour of convincing Shiro. “Well, not on purpose, but the only thing I could really remember of my nightmares, this last week, was these symbols, and I drew them on paper, and the paper gave me a paper cut,” he held up his had to show the bandaid before continuing his rant, “and I bled on the paper, and apparently summoned them, and then you called, and Lance appeared, and that’s why I didn’t answer the first time, and then I was trying to make Lance leave, or at least not make such a mess, which neither happened,” he gestured to his wardrobe, “then you called a second time, and I panicked, and Lance calmed me down and magicked my phone to me, and you called again, which I answered, and I’ve been cleaning his mess since.”

Both Lance and Shiro were left speechless as they looked at Keith, who was breathing heavily. He felt the weight of today leave as he told Shiro the truth. Keith could feel that Lance’s grip on him had loosened slowly as his rant had continued, and it now allowed him to move out of Lance’s grip completely. He made his way out of his room, passed Shiro, and over to the coffee table where the summoning circles still sat. 

Keith grabbed the papers and glanced back at where he’d left Shiro and Lance. They were watching each other but had moved to follow Keith into the loungeroom instead of standing in the doorway to his room. Keith stepped over to stand between the two men, he then handed the circles to Shiro. 

Shiro arched his brow before looking from Lance to the paper before him. “And these summoned him?”

Keith pointed to the curved one, “That one did. The other, only partially,” he looked at Lance for conformation and received a nod, “summoned another one, which I haven’t met yet.”

“One you don’t want to either.” Lance added, gaze blank, causing both men to look at him. “I don’t know what he wants,” Lance continued, ignoring the cautious looks, “but I know it’s nothing good.”

Keith grabbed Lance’s hand and squeezed, triggering Lance to focus his gaze on him. Keith sent a reassuring smile to Lance, pleased when Lance returned the gesture. He entirely forgot that Shiro was standing right there beside him, watching their exchange. They stood there smiling stupidly at each other for a minute before Shiro tapped on Keith’s shoulder, causing the boy to jump and turn to his brother with a startled look on his face.

Shiro arched a questioning eyebrow a Keith, a knowing smirk on his lips. Keith blushed furiously as he glared at Shiro. He didn’t want to be obvious but something about Lance just drew Keith in. It was beyond frightening for Keith, he had never felt so comfortable around someone so quickly before and he had definitely never fallen so deeply in his life. Keith did have a small fear that it was some sort of trickery on the demon’s part and the thought of that just broke Keith's heart a little more each time it crossed his mind.

“So, where will Lance be staying then?” Shiro asked, though Keith expected he already had an idea.

“If it’s alright,” Lance started, it was the first time Keith had seen him appear unsure of something, “I’d like to be able to stay here.” Lance said wringing his hands lightly, “The other demon might come back, and I have to protect Keith.”

“What do you mean _’have to’_?” Shiro asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I promised Keith I would protect him.” Lance stated, mirroring Shiro’s posturing.

Shiro grinned and let out a small huff of a laugh. He moved around Keith and placed a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “You can sleep on the couch. But know,” Shiro tightened his grip on Lance, a simple warning, “if you hurt him, you will wish he didn’t summon you.”

With that said, Shiro pat both Lance and Keith on the shoulder, eyeing them both, before moving to his own room. Leaving the boys in the loungeroom, both confused about what had just happened.

“You can’t possess people, can you?” Keith asked as he looked at Shiro’s closed door.

“No,” Lance said shaking his head, “we can talk and convince but we can’t force people.”

Keith hummed, there was so much he wanted to ask but it was getting late. He went and grabbed the spare blankets and pillows from the linen press and sat them down on the couch. Keith then went to his room to grab a spare pair of jammies for Lance to use. He was rummaging in his draws to try and find the spare pair that was slightly too long for him, ones which should fit Lance perfectly. That’s when he felt the arms wrap around his waist again. He turned his head to glare at Lance, even when his heart was already racing again, and his face was flushed.

“Do you have to?” Keith said as he saw the smirk that crossed Lance’s face. He turned away, back to the task at hand, and finally found the pyjamas that had been alluding him previously. Keith pulled the clothes from his draws and turned in Lance's hold to push the clothes at him. “Get dressed and go to bed.”

“Aw, no kiss goodnight?” Lance said with a pout on his face.

Keith only pushed at Lance until he was back in the loungeroom and shut the door after him, he heard Lance shout an indignant ‘hey’ before he heard Lance shuffling away from the door. Keith shook his head a stupid smile on his face that he couldn’t seem to get rid of. It stayed on his face while he got dressed and ready for bed and up until he fell asleep, thinking of the stupidly charming demon that was sleeping in the loungeroom.


	8. The Semblance

Keith jolted awake to the sound of his alarm blaring. He’d been having a pleasant dream before the irritating sound of his alarm scared him out of it. Moving to reach over and turn his phone off, he found that he couldn’t, that his movement were restricted by an arm wrapped around his waist, pinning it to his side. The first time this had happened, the night before when Keith summoned Lance, Keith had woken up because of one of his nightmares. Waking from his nightmare and finding that an arm was restricting his movements had very nearly drove him into a panic. It wasn’t until Lance had let go and stated calmly that it was only him, then Keith could relax a bit. What he hadn’t been expecting was the soft kiss to his forehead and Lance’s mumbled reassurances that he could go back to sleep. He’d fallen asleep 5 minutes later, which was more than a little surprising.

He’d woken the morning after his nightmare to the same arms wrapped tightly around him and the soft sound of Lance sleep talking more reassurances. He’d been sure to tell him off when they were fully awake, but he did secretly enjoy the moment before then. 

Now though, he groaned as he tried to pry the arm from around his waist and found that the more he tried the less successful he was becoming. Lance's arm around him only tightened with every one of his attempt. The alarm had stopped ringing by the time Keith had given up on his struggling. It wasn’t getting him anywhere. He needed to think of another way to make Lance move.

“Lance,” Keith sighed, going limp in Lance’s arms. “Let me go.”

The arm around his waist squeezed him a little before finally letting him go. He heard Lance’s sigh and turned to face the demon, scowl already on Keith’s face. He had already told Lance off yesterday for this and he didn’t particularly want Shiro to come in to his room to see them spooning. Even if Keith _did_ enjoy the closeness.

“What did I say yesterday about staying on the couch?” Keith growled quietly, as they were laying quite close together. He pushed his arms between them both and made to shove Lance further away. Lance on the other hand seemed to have other ideas and grabbed Keith’s arms, pulling the boy closer to himself. They ended up only inches apart from one another, a soft, but cunning, smile on Lance’s face. He slowly inched closer, essentially breathing directly on Keith's lips.

“You told me to stay,” Lance all but purred, his eyes flickering between their natural and luminescent qualities, “but I could tell, in your heart, you didn’t really want me to.”

Keith could feel his face heat up and knew he needed to get away from Lance before he did something stupid, which was close to happening without his input anyway. He pulled his head back as far as possible, with Lance still trying to hold him close, and took a deep breath. He reminded himself that it was a Monday, that he had school to go to, and that any minute now Shiro would be coming in to check on him before he left for work. With that in mind Keith knew he had to deal with Lance as quickly as possible.

“Lance,” he said as sternly as he could manage, looking into the demon’s eyes with resolve, “let me go.”

His arms were released immediately, which Keith wouldn’t admit surprised him quite a bit, letting him move off the bed and finally turn his alarm off before it went off again. He stood up and made his way over to his draws to find clothes to wear for the day.

“I’m going to school today,” Keith said, a little uncertain, “I don’t know what you want to do while you wait.”

Lance sat up straight, looking up at Keith like he was a puppy and Keith was offering him the best treat imaginable, “Oh,” Lance said with a voice that held too much excitement for him to not be up to mischief, a wide grin stretching across his face, “I’ll come with you.”

“You can’t,” Keith said frowning, then narrowing his eyes at the man, “you’re not enrolled at my school and it would be weird for you to just show up.”

Lance rolled his eyes, a playful smirk crossing his face. He brought his hand up either side of his face and wiggle his fingers, “I’m magic, remember?”

Keith looked on at Lance with disbelief, eyes narrowed and arms crossed, “What did you do?”

Lance chuckled as he stood up and waved a hand over himself. It looked like a ripple of water crossed over his body and once it dissipated there stood Lance. Not much had changed in his appearance, the more human one he had been sporting for the last day or so, but his clothes had changed. He was no longer wearing Keith's pyjamas, instead he was wearing blue skinny jeans, a white shirt, and a khaki jacket. He looked good and Keith was trying his best not to stare. From the smirk Lance was sporting, Keith wasn’t doing a great job.

“Hi,” Lance spoke, smirk still firmly in place, “My name’s Lance McClain, nice to meet you.”

Keith huffed and turned away from Lance, grabbing his clothes he’d need for the day. “Well hi, Lance,” Keith mocked, “What school did you go to before this? Why start in the middle of term? Why are you always hanging around that loser?” Keith whispered the last question, turning to head out of his room. He didn’t get far when Lance grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn and look back at Lance.

“Hey,” Lance uttered softly, “what was that about?”

“Nothing,” Keith said but couldn’t meet Lance’s gaze, keeping his own on the bundle of clothes that he held in one arm.

Lance seemed to sense that something was off but decided not to push it, which Keith was immensely grateful for. He quickly slipped out of Lance’s slackened grip and headed to the bathroom. Keith could already feel his energy draining from him, today was going to be one hell of a day.


	9. Simple

Shiro’s expression was fond but concerned as he looked on at the two boys bickering in the kitchen. He had secrets that he’d have to tell Keith eventually, and probably Lance as well, but he was more concerned with just how attached they seemed to be to each other. It hadn’t been more than two full days and they were almost attached at the hip. Shiro wasn’t sure if that was because of the weird over protectiveness from Lance or the loneliness from Keith. He couldn’t dwell on it further though as Lance spotted him in the doorway.

“Hey, brother Shiro,” Lance sang, waving at Shiro from his place beside Keith. Keith turned his attention from making lunches for everyone to Shiro. He gave his brother a smile, receiving one back, before getting back to the food.

“You don’t have to call me ‘brother Shiro’ you know?” Shiro spoke as he went and grabbed the juice from the fridge. “‘Shiro’ is just fine.”

“Alright, Shiro,” Lance said as he bounced around the kitchen, grabbing a cut for Shiro, then going back to Keith and finding the lunch boxes he’d need. 

He made his way back to Shiro, who was leaning against the counter with an amused look on his face. Lance leaned up next to him, observing Keith move around the kitchen. He couldn’t keep that smile off his face, his excitement was obvious, and Lance could feel Shiro’s gaze on him. He turned to Shiro and saw the questioning raised eyebrow and Lance chuckled slightly.

“I’m going to school with Keith today,” Lance sang, overly excited. “Everything is all set, so you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff.” Lance quickly added before Shiro could ask.

“Well,” Shiro said as Keith handed him a lunch box, “I guess I’ll leave you to it. Good luck today.”

Shiro gave both boys a pat on the shoulder before heading to the front door. Keith stood in the kitchen still, worrying his lip, as he watched Shiro walk away and Lance follow to say good bye at the door. He really wasn’t looking forward to today, to school.

_School_. School was something Keith was very much dreading. And it wasn’t the usual amount of dread either. Lance was coming along and had the terrible feeling that Lance won’t want to talk to him after today. He knew it was a stupid thing to think, they’d become kind of close over the weekend, but school was different and it scared Keith to think about what could happen today.

Keith drew in a sharp breath, holding it for a few seconds, before letting it out long and slow. He grabbed both his and Lance’s lunch boxes and made his way out of the kitchen. _I can do this,_ Keith thought to himself shoving the food in his school bag, _I … I can do this._

Without word, he grabbed Lance’s hand and pulled him out the door, locking it behind himself. He knew his face was red as he hauled Lance down the road toward the bus station. It didn’t take long for the bus to arrive and soon enough they were walking out the bus and toward the front doors of the school. Lance was practically skipping as he made his way to the school. Keith knew it was probably the first time Lance had been to a school before and Keith could only hope it all went well today.

He sucked in a deep breath as he followed after the overexcited boy, if he could just get though the day without incident he'd be happy. However, he knew just how unlikely that would be, he had literally brought a demon to school. Today was going to be an eventful one, at any rate.


	10. The School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter told in Lance's POV
> 
> Warning of Homophobic remarks in the beginning.

Lance was super excited, he'd finally know what school was like, he'd finally get to act like a normal human teenager. But in all his excitement he hadn't realised that Keith was walking ten steps behind him, hadn't realised the bully that had cruelly pushed Keith onto the ground as they walked passed. It wasn’t until Lance heard the sound of Keith's pained gasp that he spun around to face him. Lance's face drained of excitement and colour as he all but ran back to Keith. An apology for leaving him behind was right on the tip of his tongue, however the bully managed to speak first.

"We always knew you were a weakling, Keith," the guy sneered, his friends all cheering him on with laughs, "and now we know you're a fag as well. Need your boyfriend to protect you, huh." The guy bent down and shoved Lance's shoulder, drawing his attention, "Quit making out in front of the school, fags."

Lance's vision turned red with anger, it wasn’t even anger for himself either. He'd been called all kinds of names before and 'fag' was not even close to the worst of them.

No, his anger was for Keith. It was because of this guy and his lackeys with their smirks and snickers. Because of the people that walked on by or watched it happen. Because no one had even thought to help Keith up when he was knocked down. All the reluctance of coming to school that Keith had shown during the weekend, and especially this morning, made a scary amount of sense now. 

And that infuriated Lance.

Lance stood up as calmly as possible, pulling Keith up with him but keeping Keith protectively behind himself. He turned to the bully, face straight and not showing any emotion. Deep down he wanted to make a scene, he really, really wanted to, but Keith's grip on his hand tightened. It comforted him enough to take a deep breath and clam himself some as he plastered a smile on his face. He could always get this guy another way without anyone, apart from a demon, knowing.

"Sorry to hear that you're a homophobic asshole," Lance said, his smile widened as one of his senses picked up something that made him want to laugh, "Or well," smile growing as he pointed his finger toward the guy and wiggled it as he continued in an almost singsong voice, "you're acting like one, so people don’t catch on."

Lance watched as the guy stiffened and paled before he began to stutter and blush a vibrant red. He leaned toward the guy to whisper in his ear, "Sorry, but Keith is mine. Should've taken your chance while you had it, instead of being an asshole to your crush."

Lance watched with vicious satisfaction as the guy became a stammering mess. He pulled a shell-shocked Keith away from the guy as he stuttered a reply.

"Y-Yeah right! You… you lying bastard." The bully shouted after them, but Lance didn’t bother turning back or answering him. he just continued to walk Keith towards the school, not bothering to look back at the crowd of silent onlookers, the angry bully, or his confused and doubtful friends. 

The satisfaction from besting the bully was high for Lance, he could sense that all the bully's friends knew Lance was the truthful one and even some of the onlookers did as well. So, he wasn't very surprised when the excitement from this morning came back. That bully was unlikely to pester Keith again and that made Lance ecstatic.

The hallways in the school all looked a bit too similar to Lance, so he wasn't exactly sure where he was going. That was until he saw a short boy with a head of auburn hair standing by some lockers. He wasn’t 100% certain if it was one of Keith's friends but he'd take the chance.

Lance had stolen Keith's phone the night before and had flipped through the small number of photos available. He had come across some of Shiro, of a man with glasses, and two auburn haired males that looked like brothers, one looking almost Shiro's age and the other Keith's. So, he was hopeful that the one in the photo was the one they were currently closing in on. He'd also taken a photo of himself and made it Keith's background picture last night, not that Keith had notice that, yet.

As they reached the auburn haired boy another boy reached him too. He stood taller that Lance did, with skin and hair a darker shade than Lance's own. As they all arrived at the same time there was a chorus of 'hello's. Lance wasn't too sure on what to do, he didn't know these people, he only knew what they looked like because of the photos on Keith's phone. He turned to Keith and watched as the boy flushed under his gaze.

"Pidge, Hunk," Keith addressed the others, moving his gaze to them instead of Lance. "This is Lance, he's, ah… he's staying with Shiro and I for a while."

The auburn haired boy, Pidge _what kind of name is that?_ , snorted and raised a questioning eyebrow at Keith. Keith only shrugged and moved to open his locker. Lance finally let go of Keith's hand and stuffed his own in his pockets. He watched as both Pidge and Hunk eyed Keith and himself but didn’t say a word about it. He didn't want them to hate him, they were Keith's friends, and if they were already eyeing him with suspicion now, what was going to happen if they ever found out what he really was.

The more he stood there lost in his thoughts the more nervous he became. He wanted Keith's friends to like him. He wanted Keith to like him, in a way that was more than friendship anyway. But it had been a long time since he'd been on earth and that hadn't exactly gone well. He curled his hands into fists and dug his nails in his hands, allowing to him to focus on the physical pain instead of the pain of his memories.

"I need to go to the office, don’t I?" Lance asked, he could tell that his voice was a little strained, but he tried to ignore the look of concern on Keith face. Instead focusing on something else. "I need to do enrolment stuff, right?"

"Yeah," Hunk said, a sunny smile on his face that Lance couldn’t help but return, "I can take you, if you want."

"No," Keith's voice cut in quick as he grabbed Lance's arm to start pulling him back down the hall toward the office, "I'll take him, don’t worry."

Lance saw the confused look on Hunk's face and the knowing look on Pidge's before he had to turn around to prevent himself from tripping over. Keith was still yanking him down the hall by the arm that was now pinned across his chest. Lance couldn't help but laugh at that as he used his free hand to pry off Keith's. He succeeded to moved it, so they were holding hands again. He loved the feeling of Keith's hand in his and could keep the smile from his face, even if he wanted to. 

"Here it is," Keith said as he waved a hand at the door with a sign above that said 'office'. He let go of Lance's hand and was about to pull away when Lance tugged him back. Lance was a little confused as to why Keith would be leaving him, it must have shown on his face, so Keith continued, "I need to get to class, I'll see you there later."

With that said Keith left. Lance stood there and watched as he disappeared down the hall and around a corner before he turned to face the door again. _Keith will be fine without me for a while_ , Lance thought nervously as he started to bite his lip, _It'll be a while until I have to deal with the other demon. What about the bullies though?_

The door to the office swung open, barely missing Lance and pulling his thoughts away from Keith. He looked on as the man, who had opened the door, finished his conversation with the receptionist and turned to face him. They both share a brief look of shock before the man gestured for him to enter the office. Lance couldn’t help but oblige, still a bit shocked but curious.

The man made his way to another door that stood off to the side of the main reception area, tucked into a corner towards the back. There was a little name plate on the door that read 'Principal Coran Wimbleton'. He gestured for Lance to enter and, after speaking quietly to the receptionist again at the door, he closed it. Lance sat in the seat that was clearly for guests and waited for Coran to speak first, he swung his legs ideally as he took in the room around him. Certificates hung on the walls and around them were many pictures that must have been draw by young children. He looked back at the man when he elected not to speak first.

"I wasn't expecting to see you, old man. What are you doing here, Coran?" Lance asked, quite a bit relieved that he knew someone who knew about him.

"Do you know how unfair it is that we all get called demons, or evil spirits, just because of where we live?" Coran asked with a heavy sigh, scrubbing his hands down his face. "I just want to help people in their pursuit of knowledge." He looked through his hands at Lance, "Is that really a bad thing?"

Lance let out a small laugh as he leaned over and gripped Coran's shoulder, trying to be reassuring. "You don’t have to worry about me, Coran, I'm not fond of those labels either, but you have to know it’s the higher levels that make our world seem dangerous. They're the ones that usually get summoned."

That made Coran drop his hands and look at Lance with curiosity, "How did you get summoned?"

Lance let out a huff of breath as he remembered the week or so before he had been summoned and being attached to Keith but unable to communicate properly with him. "Keith, a boy that goes to this school, he summoned me by accident and partially someone else, but they fled immediately."

He watched as Coran's face paled and it concerned Lance greatly, not much could make him pale like that. "What? What is it?"

"Uh," Coran gulped and took a breath before continuing, "That wouldn't be Keith Kogane?" Lance gave Coran a blank expression, he actually didn’t know what Keith's last name was and he knew tonnes about him, huh. Coran continued when no recollection crossed Lance's features, "About your height, black hair, dark eyes, pale skin?"

"Yeah," Lance said with a stupid grin across his face, "that's my Keith."

Coran groaned and let his head bang down onto the table. Lance couldn’t tell what the man was thinking but it obviously had to do with his lack of awareness of something. Lance just kept on staring at Coran until his head left his desk to stare straight at Lance. He felt a chill run down his spine the longer they sat there in silence and he knew what that chill meant. He was not going to like what he was about to hear.

"The Kogane's and Shirogane's were famous in our world, do you know why?" Coran asked, Lance could only shake his head and silently berated his mother for keeping them all away from most things to do with the others, "Well, they were famous demon hunters families. Rumour has it that Shirogane Takashi is still trying to find the demon that killed his parents and that he's now one of the most revered demon hunter of this generation."

"Wait, Shirogane? You don’t mean Shiro? Keith's brother?" Lance said, more than a little panicked. He was up and pacing around the small space of the room before he was even conscious of what he was doing.

"I'm afraid so."

"Then why has Shiro let me live?" Lance all but shouted, "Why has he let me stay? Why didn't either of them say something?"

Lance deflated back onto the chair, his head in his hands. Even with the knowledge that Keith hadn't told him about it, Lance just couldn't be mad at him. He felt more betrayed then he did mad and he wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.

"I'm not sure, my boy," Coran said as he crouched down next to Lance and place a reassuring hand on his arm, "you can always stay with me if that will make you feel better."

A fond smile crept onto Lance's face as he turned to face Coran, "I won't put you in danger because of me. They might not know about you yet and I don’t want to be the cause of you being outed to them." He said, shaking his head. He said he would protect Keith and he was going to do just that, even if it was more than likely to get him killed.

"Just be careful, okay?" Coran requested as he got up from his crouched position. Lance watched as Coran made his way over to a pile of papers before rifling through them to find the one he wanted. With it in hand he made his way back to Lance and held it out for him to take. Lance took the paper with a questioning gaze. Coran lifted an eyebrow at Lance and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Next time," Coran began with a pointed look at Lance, "Try not to use your magic _just_ to enrol in a school."

Lance let out a nervous chuckle and stood up. "Um, well…" Lance cleared his throat as he moved to the door to let himself out, "I, ah, I better get to class, huh."

He heard Coran's snicker as he left the room and waved good bye to the receptionist. She didn't even bother to glance up at him as he made for the door at a quick pace. Once he was clear of the door he let out a breath that he had been holding on for too long. The papers Coran had handed him were now crumpled in his hands from the nervous way he'd been subconsciously holding them, and he straightened them out to look at properly. 

Okay, he could do this. He could protect Keith with all his power. He could survive this; survive the unknown demon out for Keith, survive the apparent demon hunters that he now lived with. He could probably survive school as well.


	11. Sidetracked

Keith was nervous. He had dropped Lance off at the office before class started and Lance still wasn't back yet. This class had fifteen minutes left to it and Keith was getting increasingly nervous with ever new minute that passed. Lance had said he'd be sharing all of Keith's classes but what if he wasn't. 

Keith's eyes were wandering as he thought of Lance and he unintentionally made eye contact with David before quickly averting his gaze. Sure, the bastard had pushed him and called him a fag this morning, but Lance had just spit that back in his face. Keith didn't know how Lance could have known about that, but he had and now the whole school was a buzz with the news that their resident bully was gay.

Considering what had happened that morning, he wasn’t sure if he should have felt offended or somewhat relieved. Because that was all any one could talk about. That and Lance. 

No, no one spoke of that fact that he'd been pushed down and called names, again. No one spoke of the reasons why, or how, Lance outed David. No one spoke of the obvious insecurities of David had either. No, they spoke of how the homophobic David was a homo himself and that he probably got off on calling other people fags. They spoke of the way Lance stood up to the bully, how handsome and courageous he was for doing that. 

And, okay, Keith kind of spoke similarly of Lance to both Hunk and Pidge when they'd met at the classroom, ten minutes before the teacher got there. Of how he stood up to David, how he backed down when Keith grabbed his arm. It was also very likely that Keith had let slip just how attractive and brave he thought Lance was and had been that morning. 

Keith really hated that he'd let that slip, especially considering this was Pidge he was talking to. And Pidge, she loved to tease. She was relentless with it, even as the teacher came and opened the door and they stood back, still chatting and teasing and far too loud for the classroom. It wasn't until Pidge received a hard shove from behind that their laughter and talking stopped. David walked passed them with his bag on his back and an impressive frown on his face.

"Watch it, dick!" Pidge called after him.

"What did you say?!" David challenged as he spun to glared at them. 

He didn't even get to take a step forward before Keith was immediately between the two, standing with his feet apart and ready to be shoved back. He might not be one to protect _himself_ when it came to the bullies of this school, but if any of them threatened his friends he'd be there to protect them. So, Keith watched warily as David moved to push him in the chest. He didn't get very far, though, as their teacher interrupted him.

"David, stop standing in the doorway and take a seat." She said with her usual commanding voice. Keith was extremely happy for the firmness in her voice at that moment, especially considering it wasn’t directed towards him. 

Keith was glad they had Madame Stewart first thing, because she might look like a small and sweet teacher, but she was imitating when she wanted, and she wasn't one to take anyone's crap. Which meant that nothing else happened during class. 

It wasn't until the bell rang that Keith's focus turned back to the clock on the wall. Keith's nerves seemed to fizzle under his skin as he pulled all his thing together. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He could feel eyes looking at him and he was more than certain it was David's, but he refused to look over at him. When he spotted Hunk and Pidge making their way over he gathered his work up quicker. 

"Biology next fool!" Pidge exclaimed, "So, hurry up!"

Next to her Hunk laughed as he made his way to the door holding it open and making a wide gesture for Pidge to go though. Keith followed after at a much more sedated pace then Pidge, who was skipping down the hall. 

"You know," Hunk spoke as he kept in pace with Keith, "She'll never truly admit it, but she loves biology."

"Just last week she'd be grumbling that we had bio next." Keith side-eyed Hunk, "What did you do to make her love it over the weekend?"

"We just talked, I compared the human brain to a super computer. I think she's now planning on being one of those people that work on building androids or cyborgs or something." Hunk shrugged as they closed in on the biology labs. Keith couldn’t help but snort out a quick laugh before they arrived where Pidge was waiting and by the mirth in Hunk's eyes, he got it too. Pidge always had a weak spot for technology.

The door to the bio lab was already open when they arrived. Their teacher always arrived at class early, as he didn’t teach in the first lesson on a Monday. And as Pidge had practically ran down the halls she was the one to arrive first. 

So, of course, the first words to _loudly_ pass her mouth would be. "Looks like your boyfriend's already here, Keith."

Keith groaned and ducked his head as he made his way over. Many students had turned their heads in Keith's direction, but he refused to look. Ignore it and it goes away, right? Well, that's what he hoped because he could already feel the heat coming off his face and it was very likely his face was bright red. 

In the class room Mr. Reynolds, the biology teacher, was explaining something to Lance, who had stopped listening once he'd heard Keith's name. Lance glance over to the door and saw Keith staring at him with slightly widen eyes and a red face.

Keith might have felt a bit panicky at that point. _Had Lance heard what Pidge had said?_ He really hoped not and decided on hurrying over to the desk he usually sat at for bio. He couldn’t bring himself to back at Lance again, so he attempted to busy himself with sorting his textbooks. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Pidge slid in the chair opposite him, Hunk coming to sit beside her. 

They were obviously up to something, judging from the smirk Pidge had on her face and Hunk's refusal to look him directly in the eye. Really, he should have known what they were up to, but it wasn't until Lance was sitting in the seat beside him that he realised. They'd done it on purpose, they'd left the seat beside him spare on purpose. He felt like an idiot for not seeing through their obvious behaviour.

"Can I share a text book with someone?" Lance asked the table in general.

Keith could see that Hunk was about to oblige but Pidge slapped his arm away. Only Hunk had his book out and she waved her hand over at Keith's already open book. "I forgot mine as well today," She said with a smirk, "So, I'll share Hunk's and you can share Keith's."

"Sure," Lance said doubtfully but shrugged and turned to Keith. Keith knew Pidge was lying and Lance probably did as well, but he wouldn't go against her. Lance might be a demon, but Pidge was the devil when you got on her bad side and questioning her about anything usually resulted in that. So, for his own sanity he didn't question her, all he did was push his book further towards Lance so that he could see it easier.

Mr. Reynolds started up the lesson not long after that and throughout it Keith could feel eyes on him. Sometimes he knew it was Lance, he was a bit bewildered through most of the lesson and kept turning to Keith for help. Which Keith didn't want to admit he kind of loved. Though, whenever Keith knew it wasn’t Lance looking at him, Keith could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as a small feeling of dread filled his system and that really ruined his mood. 

He'd looked around the classroom a couple of times, trying to figure out just who was spying on him, but he'd been unable to pinpoint it to anyone. When class had finally ended the dread hadn't vanished, but it lessened some as Lance put his arm around Keith's shoulders. If he wasn't already embarrassed, and if everyone didn't already think they were dating, he'd have thought to remove Lance's arm. Right now, though, it seemed like the only thing that dulled the dread and he'd be lying if he didn't love the way they fit together so well.

"You alright?" Lance whispered in his ear as they ignored the snickers that came from Pidge and Hunk.

Keith ignored his friends and the other students and wrapped his arm around Lance's waist. He felt nervous as hell with everyone looking on but over the weekend he'd come to realise that Lance was just a very affectionate person and it didn't really matter if someone reciprocated he'd still be affectionate. Despite being nervous it also calmed Keith, he almost felt the feeling of being protected just because of Lance's touch. Which was stupid but at the moment Keith didn't care.

"Yeah," Keith sighed and unconsciously tightened his grip on Lance, "just had a weird feeling in bio."

Lance hummed in thought as they reached the lockers. Lance had been lucky that there was a spare one next to Pidge's locker that he could claim. Keith watched as Lance dumped his books in haphazardly and closed it before anything could fall out. Keith couldn't help the laugh that bubbled from him as he shook his head and place his own books back his locker, in a much neater than Lance had.


	12. Sleepy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about taking almost a month for this chapter to be out. I know it's not a long one but I'm currently writing and editing two more chapters for you all to look forward to. Hope you enjoy :D

Keith woke up slowly but continued to lay in bed, his brain whirling as he thought over the past week. It had continued smoothly and without any big incidents, and by the end of the week Keith was in a noticeably more cheerful mood. 

Even school hadn't been that bad. Especially considering David hadn't spoken to him since Monday's incident. No one at school had really been focused on him anyway. They'd been more interested in Lance. They'd asked questions like; 'who Lance was? Where was he from? Why did he hang around Keith?' And there had been one colourful conversation that Keith had happened to overhear: 'Why would someone as handsome and funny as Lance, go for that fucking freaky emo kid? He's probably into all _kinds_ of satanic demon worship.' Which their friend had replied laughingly, 'Yeah, he probably made some deal with a demon to get a boyfriend that hot.'

Which, when Keith really thought about it, was probably not that far from the truth. Not that he would ever be telling anyone that. Shiro already knew, it was too hard to keep that kind of thing from him. However, Keith had a sneaking suspicion that Lance might have said something to Pidge, though he couldn't be sure. Pidge was smart and would probably find out herself if he didn't say anything to her.

He was just going to enjoy the relative peace as much as possible while he could. He had a feeling life was too good at the moment and that wasn't going to last long, so he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could.

A yawn drew his attention from his thoughts as he looked down at the head of brown hair that was resting on his chest. The head turned to face Keith and if he had much air in his lungs he didn’t now. Lance looked up at him from his position on Keith's chest, eyes bright and slightly luminous with a sleepy smile stretching across his face.

"Morning, beautiful." Lance mumbled as he leaned his head back down to rest on Keith's chest again. It was his favourite spot, being able to hear the beating of Keith's heart under his ear. Lance drew his arms around Keith's waist and hugged him tightly. 

Keith didn't have much air in his lungs and ended up wheezing out what was meant to be a greeting as well. It was always Lance's fault that Keith was breathless around him. They had been sleeping in the same bed for a week, due to Lance's inability to follow orders, but Keith was still weak to anything Lance did. _And it would probably never go away,_ Keith thought as he sucked in a deep breath.

"Mornin'," Keith spoke, still breathless but able to make understandable sounds now.

"Hmm," Lance hummed happily. The sound drew Keith further from his thoughts and he realised that he had his own arm wrapped around Lance, his hand running up and down Lance's back. His other hand was ideally fiddling with Lance's long fingers. 

It was only because of his sleep addled mind that he didn't stop. Or well, that’s what he was going to tell himself when they finally got out of bed. Instead they laid there, in the comfortable silence, just listening to each other's breath and heart beats. 

Keith was glad Lance wasn't looking at him anymore. He didn't think he would be able to take the intensity of those big blue eyes for long before the situation would turn awkward. Mainly because he had a hot guy sleeping in his bed. Who wouldn't react to that.

Keith's mind began to wonder again as they lay there. It started to turn in a direction he really didn't want it to go with Lance practically on top of him. He was saved from his thoughts going any further when the sound of knocking came from the bedroom door then the sound of the door creaking open.

Both boys shot up at the sound of the door opening. Shiro stood in the doorway, a questioning and slightly suspicious look on his face. Keith couldn't hide his blush as he rushed to get out of bed. Lance got up at a more sedated pace, observing Keith. Both men watched Keith as he moved around his room. 

He could feel both their eyes on him as he gathered his clothes as quickly as he could, tripping over his own feet at least twice, before rushing out the door past Shiro. He heard Shiro chuckle behind him but didn't bother to turn around, instead heading to the bathroom and locking himself in. It hadn't been the first time Shiro had walked in on them but without fail it would always embarrass Keith. He took a deep breath before getting ready to shower and prayed that he wouldn't embarrass himself further.


End file.
